Connecting rod aligning and supporting fixture



March 7, 1950 w. MITCHELL 2,500,087

CONNECTING ROD ALIGNING AND SUPPORTING FIXTURE Filed Sept. 8, 1947INVENTOR.

Patented Mar. 7, 1950 CONNECTINGBOD ALIGNING AND SUPPORTING FIXTURE"Wallace F. Mitchell, Chicago, 111., assignor sto AmmcoTools,Inc.,"N,orth Chicago, Il1.,;:a corporationv of Illinois Application]September 8, 1947,fSerialNo.772,649

50laims.

1 This invention relates porting fixture for a honing machine and it hasto do particularly with a fixture adapted to support and align aconnecting rod in honingpo5igenerally to a work-suption on a honingmachine of the character, for ,5

operation, thereby insuring true'honing of the bearing even though it isdone by a-careless or unskilled workman.

A further object is to provide a fixture of the foregoing characterwhich is self-adjusting to accommodate connecting rods of variouslengths J which may beencountered in the ordinary servicing operations.

Still anotherobject of the'invention' is to reduce the cost of servicingconnecting rod bearings by reducing the time required for the servicingoperation and by obtaining the desiredresults Without the necessity ofusing highly skilled workmen. Additional objects are to provide aconnecting rodhsupport for a honing machine by which the combined honingand connecting rod aligning operationsare materially speeded up; toeliminate the necessity of aligning operations subsequent to the honingoperation; and to provide means whereby the aligning and honing ofconnecting rod bearings may be carried out with. greatly increasedefficiency at a lower cost.

The invention comprises other and further'features hereinafter set forthand more particularly defined in the appended claims-and illustrated inthe drawings wherein Figure 1 is a front elevational viewof one, form offixture embodying'the invention mounted one honing machine-andillustrating a connecting rod in broken linesupported onthe'fixtureinthe honing position;

Fig. 2is-a side elevational View of the structure of Fig. 1. withaportion of the honing machine omitted; and

'- Fig-3 is asectional viewofthe"fixtureshown in the previous figuresandas-viewed on lines 3-3 of Fig.2;

A fixture embodying my inventionisedapted for-use with any suitablehoning machineyhowever, it'is particularly W611 adapted for-use with ahoning machine l0 of thetype disclosed in my aforesaidpendingapplication Serial No; 632,908. Tornount the fixtureofmyinventionon the horn ing machine ill, I'plOVide an accurately machined surface llat the front of the honing machine casing, which surface is disposedatanangle oi 90 with respect to the horizontal and vertical axial planesof the hone tool I 2. The hone i2 projectsoutwardly from the front ofthemachine Iii where it is readily accessible to the operators, and,while any suitablehone may be usedl prefer the hone shown and describedin my pending application, Serial -No.6l5,I65, filed September 8,1945,which matured asPatent No. 2,445,277,

dated July 13, 1948.

A preferred form of my invention is illustrated in "Fig. l. Thestructure there shown comprises a rectangul ar bar l3, the right end ofwhich is removably and rigidly secured to the surface ll of the machinelfiby bolts 1 3 or other suitable fastening means, so that the body ofbar I3 is disposed in a plane parallel tothesurface I l. The barl'3-projects laterally and its free end is provided with an opening l4adapted to receive the reduced threaded end of a rod I5. The rod i5 is,fixed to the bar 13 by anut l6 and it extendsperpendicularly:andforwardly fromthe bar 13 in parallelrelation-totheaxis of 'the hone l2. The rod t5, which is of circular cross-sectionand of uniform diameter throughout its length, has a smoothsurface'finish to minimize frictional resistance therewith. The rod l'5slidably and rotatably supports a worksupportingmember t1 Whichwill nowbe described.

Specifically tl1e 'member l'l comprises a body 20 having bearingelements It and ill at each end thereof. Thebody 20 intermediatethe'bear ings l8 and ta ls cut-awayto give it a semicircularcross-sectional shape,: which portion has an internal diametergreater-than the outside diameter-of the rod 15' to provideaclearance-,2! with the rod. In thismanner, the" frictional contactbetween the ,I'Od. andthe work-supporting member is "restricted to thebearing elements 18 and I9 and the Weight of the structureis preduced.Each of'the bearing-elements it, 19 is provided with means such as boltsT22,"f01 adjusting and clamping "such bearings for a fixed radialclearancexwithithe rod which preferably: is onlyzan amount :sufflcient:to permit the member I! to be moved freely both axially andcircumferentially on the rod IS. The purpose of the slidable androtatable movement of the member I! will be described presently.

The outer end or bearing IQ of the body 26 integrally carries verticallydisposed arm 24 which in turn supports a work-supporting plate 23. Thefront face of the plate 23 is accurately machined to a smooth finish andis so carried by arm M as to lie in a plane perpendicular to the axis ofrod [5 and parallel to the plane of the mounting surface H on machineiii. In other words, the face of plate 23 is disposed at right angles tothe axes of the hone l2 and rod it and parallel to the plane of surfaceH. The work-supporting member ii and its plate are so slidably androtatably positioned on the rod that the face of the plate 23 retainsthe relation stated in any selected position of the supporting memberIT. A work-supporting pin, such as a fillister-head screw 25, is securedto the front of the plate 23 for the purpose of supporting a connectingrod 28 as will be explained hereinafter.

A rod 26 is secured to the bearing i9 diametrically opposite the arm Mby screw threads or other suitable fastening means. The free end of therod 26 supports a counter-balance weight 21 secured thereto by set screw2% a sufiicient distance from the axis of the rod Hi to maintain orreturn the member ii and its plate 23 to a posivtion approximately 90above the horizontal axial plane of the rod l5 when nowork is supportedon the said plate. It follows that if the member ll and the plate 23 arerotated either clockwise or counterclockwise to an acute angularposition and then released, the plate 23 automatically will return toits uppermost or starting position.

In operation, assuming that a new piston pin bearing has been insertedin the bearing holding portion of the connecting rod 23, the workman isrequired to hone to size and surface finish the bearing to fit aselected piston pin. According to my invention, as an incident to thesizing and finishing operation, the piston pin bearing willsimultaneously be aligned with the crankshaft bearing. Inasmuch as thebearing surface of the crankshaft bearing is always disposed at an exactangle of 90 with respect to the end of the said bearing, an end of suchbearing is used to locate or position the connecting rod in my fixture.For purpose ofillustration, the connecting rod iii is shown in brokenlines in Figure 1. It will be noted that the supporting pin 25, which isdisposed at right angle to the face of plate 23, projects into thecrankshaft bearing to support a portion of the weight of the connectingrod and at the same time to locate the end of such bearing on the plate23. The operator holds the end of the crankshaft bearing against thesurface of plate with his left hand and rotates the plate 23 and itssupporting structure H on the rod it: until the opening in the pistonpin bearing aligns with the hone it. With this arrangement my fixturewill accommodate connecting rods having variable center distancesbetween their two bearings, and connecting rods with varying bearingspacings are handled equally satisfactorily simply by moving the plate23 clockwise or counterclockwise until the piston pin bearing alignswith the hone l2.

The foregoing manipulation is followed by the operator moving theconnecting rod 28 rearwardly so that the piston pin bearing receives thehone l2, whereupon the hone I2 is properly adjusted to the bearing andthe honing machine ll! 4 operated to rotate the hone. The connecting rod28 is then moved forwardly and rearwardly upon the hone with theoperator holding the connecting red as above explained. As this is done,the piston pin bearing reciprocates axially on the hone i2 in parallelrelationship with the axis of the crankshaft bearing because of theguiding and aligning action provided by the work-supporting plate 23sliding longitudinally on the rod '1 5. With the connecting rod limitedto the above parallel motion during the reciprocating honing operation,bell-mouthing of the bearing is eliminated.

If, for any reason, the piston pin bearing is not in proper alignmentwith the crankshaft bearing at the start of the operation, the hone willautomatically remove suflicient stock from the proper walls of thepiston pin bearing until such walls are brought into parallelrelationship with each other and with the walls of the crankshaftbearing. When the operator is satisfied that the bearing has been honedto the proper size no further operations are required. The bearings arein perfect alignment without the necessity of twisting or bending therod and performing repeated testing operations on expensive testfixtures or gauges. In actual practice, the use of my fixture hasreduced the time previously required for honing and aligning the pistonpin bearing between 40% and 45% as well as e iminating the necessity ofemploying highly skilled workmen to perform these operations. When theconnecting rod is removed from the work-supporting plate, the plateautomatically rotates to its uppermost position because of thecounterbalance weight 21 and it is in position to receive the nextconnecting rod.

My fixture may be used by the ordinary mechanic and excellent resultsare obtained without a high degree of skill. Its simple and sturdyconstruction as well as its adaptabil ty to the ordinary bench typehoning machine provides an inexpensive fixture capable of producingresults that were heretofore unobtainable except with elaborate andexpensive machines designed for production work and not found in the orinary service establishment because of their prohibitive cost. It isunderstood that the cons ruct on shown is for the purpose ofillustration only and that variations may be made in it withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. In a honing machine having a rotatable hone, a connecting rod alining and su porting fixture for a connecting rod having a crankshaftbearing and a piston pin bearing, said fixture comprising a fixedsupporting shaft ada ted to be mounted on the honing machine with itsaxis parallel with the axis of the hone, a connecting rod supportingmember having a part mounted on said shaft for simultaneous axial slideand rotational movements, an alignment plate mounted on said part andhaving a face disposed at right angles to the axes of said shaft and thehone and adapted to receive and support one end of the crankshaftbearing of the connecting rod, said plate being rotatable through saidpart toward and from the hone to accommodate connecting rods of varyinglength with the piston pin bearing thereof receiving the hone, and meansfor suspending the crankshaft bearing portion of the connecting rod onsaid plate.

2. In combination with a honing machine havmg a bone supporting spindle,a movable member having a vertically disposed plane surface adapted tosupport the material to be honed, the movable member being radiallyremoved from the hone supporting spindle, a removable sup-port meanssecured to the honing machine for supporting the movable member with thesaid vertically disposed plane surface lying in a plane disposed at anangle of 90 with the axis of the hone supporting spindle, the movablemember being movable on the removable support means both axially androtatably simultaneously relative to the hone supporting spindle.

3. In combination with a honing machine having a hone supportingspindle, a removable support means comprising a bar having one endsecured to the honing machine, and a rod supported by said bar adjacentits other end in parallel relationship with the hone supporting spindle,a member movable circumferentially and axially on the said rod andhaving a vertically disposed plane surface lying in a plane disposed atan angle of 90 with the axis of the hone supporting spindle, said planesurface being movable axially and rotatably simultaneously relative tothe hone supporting spindle, and support means projecting from saidplane surface for supporting the material to be honed, whereby thematerial to be honed may be positioned and supported on the planesurface and may be reciprocated in parallel relationship with the honesupporting spindle.

4. In a machine having a rotatable tool for sizing bores, a fixtureadapted to support and align a work piece having spaced and boredbearing elements disposed with their axes in parallel alignment, saidfixture comprising a supporting shaft disposed laterally of therotatable tool with its axis parallel with the axis of the rotatabletool, a work piece supporting member having a portion mounted on saidshaft for simultaneous axial shift and rotary movement therealong, andan alignment plate mounted on said portion and having a face disposed atright angles to the axes of said shaft and the rotatable tool andadapted to receive and support one end of one of the bearing elements ofthe work piece with another bearing element of the work piece engagedwith the rotatable tool.

5. A fixture adapted to support and align a work piece and comprising abar, a rod, said rod being circular in cross-section and secured to andadjacent one end of the bar, a member having spaced bearing elementsslidably and rotatably mounting said member on said rod, said memberhaving an alignment plate for aligning the work piece and for movementof the work piece with said member on said rod, and means on said platefor supporting the work piece radially removed from said rod.

WALLACE F. MITCHELL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Wilhide July 84, 1941

